


What factor in mistletoe causes single people to feel lonely?  Discuss.

by Ribbonsflying



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Friendship, Kissing, Loneliness, M/M, Mistletoe, No beta we die like mne, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 08:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17138114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ribbonsflying/pseuds/Ribbonsflying
Summary: “You should go see him.” Sam’s look was pointed and direct and Steve knew for all Sam’s complaints and digs at Bucky, he actually didn’t mean a word of it and was an even bigger softie when it came to Steve.Steve shrugged. “I haven’t decided.”“Well, you’re running out of time, Cap.  Last minute flights are probably all booked."**Just a little Christmas ficlet I wrote last year where the Avengers are all still friends, but Bucky still went into cryo in Wakanda.And that's hard on Steve at Christmas.





	What factor in mistletoe causes single people to feel lonely?  Discuss.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KOranges](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KOranges/gifts).



> Originally posted to tumblr in 2017 so pre-Infinity War.

Sam gave Steve the fitness watch both to equal parts amuse Steve and annoy Tony. Steve had worn it running Christmas Eve morning as he and Sam had raced through Marine Park. 

“You flying out?” Steve asked when he met up with Sam afterward (Steve still always dusted Sam in the actual event).

“Taking a bus and getting out of here in about three and a half hours. Better to show up early at the Wilson Christmas gathering than late. I show up too late, my sister won’t let me hear the end of it and I’ll probably have to sit beside my Aunt Dorothy who will bother me with questions about my love life so I’m getting out of here as soon as possible.”

Steve laughed and shook his head. “Have a good Christmas then. Maybe by the time you return I’ll have figured out how to work this thing.” He held up his wrist with the watch and took a few steps to leave for his apartment when Sam asked,

“You going to see him?”

Steve glanced up at the arch he’d stopped under. It was covered in mistletoe and lights and he looked uncomfortable a moment before Sam stepped forward and shoved him on through it.

“Don’t stop there. I don’t want to have to include a weird story about you when Aunt Dorothy asks if I’ve ‘been involved’ with anyone recently.”

Steve shook his head affectionately.

“You should go see him.” Sam’s look was pointed and direct and Steve knew for all Sam’s complaints and digs at Bucky, he actually didn’t mean a word of it and was an even bigger softie when it came to Steve.

Steve shrugged. “I haven’t decided.”

“Well, you’re running out of time, Cap. Last minute flights are probably all booked. Your one saving grace may be that Wakandans don’t celebrate Christmas so I doubt a lot of people are headed there for the holidays.” 

Steve nodded and looked as if he were lost somewhere in thought for a second. 

“Maybe I’ll see what I can do.”

=*=*=

When a knock came at the door later that morning, Steve opened it to Natasha leaning forward and immediately kissing his check. When she pulled back, he saw she was holding a cluster of mistletoe over their heads and he rolled his eyes fondly.

Natasha invited herself over all the time so he was neither surprised nor put off and as usual, he opened the door wider and allowed her to come in. 

“I have you a birthday gift,” he mentioned offhandedly as she walked toward the coffee table with her own present in hand.

She pulled out two books from the gift bag and placed them on the table before reaching in and pulling out a two-pack of artificially lit candles.

“They make fake candles now?” Steve asked with an arched eyebrow. 

“It’s for people we don’t trust with real fire,” Natasha replied with a smirk as she broke them out of their package and switched them both on. They were placed on the coffee table and end table and admittedly did make the place a little cozier looking despite Steve thinking the tree’s lights already did that.

Steve noticed the books were photography from his childhood- one of all of New York and one of just Brooklyn and was silently eager to flip through them.

Natasha caught sight of Steve’s laptop open on the sofa and glanced over at the lit up screen. 

“You going somewhere?” she asked as she reached and picked up the computer.

“The obvious?”

“What? You’re not sure if you’re going? Christmas is tomorrow. It’s a little late to be deciding isn’t it?”

Steve shrugged, feeling a little judged under the weight of her question.

“I write to him all the time, every week or so. It’s not like he’s awake to read them. Maybe going all that way and just sitting there would make it worse? He’d be so close and I’d be unable to reach him.”

Natasha’s shoulders lifted and fell quickly. 

“I don’t know. You’re supposed to be with people you care about during the holidays.”

“What about you?” 

“Clint’s invited me over like usual. We always make pizza, marathon horror films, and take pictures of his dog in antlers and Santa hats. I bought him a hat with elf ears this year. It’s gonna be a blast.”

Steve smiled. “Well, I hope you two have fun.”

“If you want to join us-“ she started, but Steve shook his head.

“I’ll be fine.”

Natasha reached into the bag again and pulled out a final item. It was an ornament with a picture on it.

“I’m not sappy. This is from Clint,” she informed before stepping over and hanging it on Steve’s tree. It didn’t have a lot of ornaments. The group photo the Avengers has taken a few months back stared out from the decoration and Steve grinned.

=*=*=

Wanda planted a chaste kiss on him when he opened the door an hour or so later and Steve noticed that Natasha had taped the damn mistletoe above his doorframe.

“Nat did the-“ he motioned as Wanda held out a plate.

“I made desserts. Actually Sharon and I made them for everyone yesterday before she flew to London.” 

Steve took the plate. “You definitely didn’t have to do this. You don’t even celebrate.”

“But you do and, besides, it was fun.”

Steve stepped aside in the doorway and welcomed her in, but Wanda shook her head.

“I have a lot of these to pass around. I wasn’t even sure you’d be home.”

“Where else would I be?” he asked, lightheartedly. “I’m planning to keep clear of the last minute rush.”

Wanda looked at him oddly. 

“I thought maybe you’d gone to see him,” she answered sheepishly. 

“Oh,” Steve’s lips said, but no sound came out. “I don’t know. Probably can’t get a flight this late.”

“Maybe for New Year’s then,” Wanda suggested with a hopeful smile and Steve smiled to not let her down.

=*=*=

Steve closed his laptop and settled back on his sofa a little after lunchtime. He hadn’t eaten anything and his stomach was grumbling so he got up and walked into the kitchen.

His cooking skills weren’t that great, but he wasn’t about to venture out into the shopping mayhem that overtook the city in the final day before Christmas. He settled on making himself some soup and put a pot on the stove. He was still heating water to make broth when he heard the buzzer for the door.

“Delivery for Steve Rogers,” came the crackly voice through the intercom.

“I, uh, I’ll be right down,” he replied and tapped off the eye for the stove before heading down to the door.

There were multiple food containers Steve had to sign for along with a note that said, “Didn’t know if you had anything special to eat and didn’t want you to just have soup and sandwiches for Christmas. This should be plenty for a few days (even for you). -Bruce”

Steve just had something in his eye. That’s all it was. His friends were so thoughtful he could punch them sometimes and he almost said as much to the doorman, but the man spoke up first to say,

“A package came for you a few minutes ago too, Sir.”

The doorman retrieved a small box for Steve and Steve thanked him before heading back up with the bags of food and the package.

He went to work opening the boxes of food and getting more and more excited each time as he portioned some out onto a plate. Then he took a selfie with himself and the filled plate and sent it to Bruce with his thank you text attached.

=*=*=

Steve had set his empty plate beside one of the glowing, fake candles and was watching some Christmas special on TV that included a handful of singers he didn’t know or care for when another knock came at the door. 

Steve opened it to find Tony standing there with a gift wrapped box in his hands. He shoved the box at Steve, but then leaned over it and planted a loud kiss on Steve’s lips. 

Steve grimaced and pulled back. He’d forgotten to take the mistletoe down that Natasha had taped to the doorframe so he grabbed it and tossed it into the room behind him somewhere. 

Pepper stood behind Tony with her usual exasperated expression, but then greeted Steve with a warm hug and smile.

“I made these special so you better wear them with pride.”

Steve shook his head, but he motioned them inside as he went about popping the tape from the sides of the gift and sliding the paper off with as much finesse as possible. (Tearing it seemed like such a waste.)

Inside the box, which he set on the arm of the sofa, were two sweaters. They were large and fluffy and well-made which Pepper humbly took credit for, but across the front of each was an electronic scrolling marquee which Tony happily took credit for.

Pressing the buttons on them made the scrolling part reveal the words, “Childhood Friend of Santa’s.”

“Hilarious,” Steve confirmed, eyeing them both. “And one wasn’t funny enough for you?”

Tony looked around. “Honestly didn’t expect you to be alone for Christmas, Cap.”

Pepper elbowed Tony. 

“Are you catching a flight or anything soon?” she asked more tactfully. 

Steve shook his head. “Nah,” he admitted trying to appear unaffected. “The flights are booked until after the holidays. And besides, it’s too late now anyway.”

Tony’s hand flailed a second. “I’ll fly you out.”

“Yeah,” Pepper agreed. “You know we have jets. We could have you there by tomorrow morning, at least.”

Steve smiled and almost agreed, but then he held up his hand to reject the offer. 

“Thanks, but, I’ll go see him again soon. Wakandans don’t do Christmas and Bruce and Wanda sent me a ton of food that I don’t want to go to waste. It’s not really like I get to spend time with him when I’m just sitting outside that machine anyway. Going now might be more depressing than it is anything.”

Pepper made a sympathetic face. 

“I’m sure he’ll be home by next year,” she said as if Steve wasn’t already spending his second Christmas with Bucky in cryo. 

“Yeah,” he agreed, trying to not be the pessimistic one for once. “We can hope so.” He turned and put a hand on Tony’s shoulder to change the subject. “You two want any of this food Bruce sent me? I’ve got a ton.”

=*=*=

Tony and Pepper had left hours before and the food was in the fridge when Steve remembered the package he’d been delivered earlier that day.

He pulled the packaging tape from it and opened it to reveal various bottles of neatly packed Asgardian spirits.

“How did he-?” Steve laughed to himself and examined the bottles. “Not bad.”

He would have texted Thor a thank you text as well, but he wasn’t sure Thor’s phone worked unless he was in this dimension so he considered sketching him a nice thank you card to give to him the next time they saw one another.

Making cards made him think of writing letters and so he thought about scribbling another letter to Bucky at least, but something about it felt useless. It wasn’t like Bucky was reading them. Steve had been to Wakanda many times. The letters were always stacked neatly nearby, unopened and waiting for him to wake up.

He picked up his plate that had been setting empty for ages now and went and placed it in the sink. He had a dishwasher, but he rarely used it. It took too long for one guy to use enough dishes to fill up the thing. 

It was dinner time and Steve thought of just washing the plate and refilling it, but he wasn’t really hungry so he grabbed a cookie from the tray and walked back into the little living room.

 _A Christmas Carol_ was starting up on TV so he settled back down on the sofa and poured all of his attention into that instead of writing a letter or feeling sorry for himself.

=*=*=

Scrooge was in the cemetery, following the crooked, pointed finger of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come when the knock at the door caused Steve to jump out of his skin.

He laughed at himself under his breath as he stood up, trying to decide who would be knocking at this hour. He padded over to the door and checked to make sure he looked halfway presentable. Then a glance through the peephole had him scrambling to open the door fast enough.

For a second, Steve thought he was seeing things, but Bucky grinned and managed, “Merry Christmas?”

Steve laughed, bright and loud, and was about to reply when Bucky cupped his face with gloved hands and pressed their lips together. Their few kisses before this one had been quick and chaste, but it seemed as if Bucky wanted to make this one count so Steve brought his hands up, pulled Bucky in by wrapping his arms around his neck, and letting their tongues meet. Bucky tasted like hot chocolate and smelled like home and Steve wanted to hold onto this moment forever.

When Bucky broke the kiss, he nipped at Steve’s lip a moment and then pushed lightly at him to get him to back up into the apartment.

Steve didn’t look at Bucky though. He looked above the doorframe. His brow furrowed to see it was empty. A glance behind him told him the mistletoe from earlier was still on the ground where he’d tossed it.

“What are you looking at? Look at me,” Bucky laughed and whined at once.

“I thought there must be mistletoe,” Steve admitted. He cheeks reddened a bit as he looked Bucky over.

“Mistletoe?” Bucky asked, closing the door and spotting the cluster of mistletoe on the ground. “I can’t kiss you ‘cause I wanna?”

Steve nodded. “Of course you can. Please kiss me whenever you want.”

Bucky swiped up the mistletoe and examined it. 

“This might come in handy then.”

He held it over Steve’s head and Steve immediately took it and tossed it toward the kitchen garbage, but leaned in nonetheless and kissed Bucky again and again.

=*=*=  
  
The first thing Steve had done was to stuff Bucky full of the food from Bruce and then he had wrestled them both into the new Santa sweaters and Bucky had grumbled with just the right amount of sarcasm to remind Steve of the man he’d known a lifetime ago.

“I have the cider and stuff to make wassail,” Steve mentioned off-handedly as he ran his fingers up and down a gold line of metal in Bucky’s hand. He hadn’t expected Bucky to actually move, but the man took himself to the kitchen and Steve could hear the refrigerator open and then a cabinet.  
  
”Fucking hell. The gods are smiling down on us,” Bucky called from the kitchen a minute later. “Norse gods want us to drink up like we’ve died and gone to Valhalla.”

“That’s from a friend,” Steve called back, knowing Bucky was looking at the spirits from Thor. “Open one up. We’ll give it a try.”

Bucky mixed them up some spiced wassail and returned to Steve while it boiled.

”This is the best Christmas,” Steve said softly from the sofa as he reached out and took Bucky’s hands. He pulled him down half on top of him and Bucky let himself be toppled down onto the other man.

”You don’t look this heavy,” Steve said as Bucky turned onto his side and bent his legs up trying to fit himself fuller onto the furniture. Steve moved to help him, but Bucky grabbed at his wrist.

“Look at your new fancy, dancy watch.”

“Sam gave it to me.”

“I hate it.”

They both laughed and Bucky kissed Steve quickly.

“Can we go upstate and see my sister tomorrow?”

“I’d thought about doing that anyway,” Steve mentioned. “‘Cause I thought I was gonna be alone.”

“Last time the doctors brought me out, a few months ago-“

“June.”

“Yeah, I had to be sneaky, but I asked my doctor if she would wake me up so I could see you for Christmas.”

“Speaking of sneaky, I’ve had a lot of visitors today, but they’ve all been on my allowed guests list except you. You’ve never been with me here so you’ve never been added to it. I’m dying to know how you got past the man at the front door.”

“Oh, you’re supposed to go through the front door?” Bucky asked with a wicked grin and Steve groaned.

“If I find out you scared some poor lady and her cat by climbing up a balcony, Bucky-“

“I bet the wassail’s ready,” he laughed and went to excuse himself.

“Bucky!”

“Relax.  I’m a pro. She never even knew I was there.”

He escaped again to the kitchen and spiked their drinks with whatever it was from Thor that smelled the most like brandy and brought them to Steve who was more interested in Bucky than the drink, but who took the mug happily and then pulled Bucky back down beside him.

They both blew on their hot drinks before taking small sips.

“So, uh,” Bucky asked, reaching forward and grabbing the Brooklyn photography book from the coffee table before glancing up at Steve coyly. “Any chance I can get you out of that hideous sweater tonight?”


End file.
